Peninsula Malaysia East Coast!

After Taman Negara I headed to the east coast to try and find these beaches that everyone says are great. First stop:

Cherating

Cherating is a small fishing village and holiday destination north of Kuantan (the state capital). It's known for it's surfing during the monsoon season, but that's still a couple of months away yet. It's got holiday accommodation everywhere with "chalets" being the most popular type. I stayed at the Matahari chalets for 4 nights. I could have stayed longer, but I really had to drag myself away and get moving through this country!

Matahari Chalets. 40RM/night, or, $13..

The chalets were simple. Just a bed, some chairs, a mosquito net, and a toilet and shower in each. The Lonely Planet guide said that this place had shared shower and toilets, so this must have been a new addition. I stayed there because the guide also mentioned that the Matahari restaurant was the best in town, but it turns out the Matahari chalets and the Matahari restaurant are two different things...

This is where I was having breakfast every day. Simple western breakfasts (scrambled eggs with cheese just meant they added a cheese slice on top) for about 5RM or $1.60AUish.

This was going on every day too, I couldn't figure it out. They were moving sand up the beach in just one spot. 

This is the beach at high tide. At low tide there are several little sand bars you can walk out on  for ages.

At the cape.

This is from the cape looking south. You can follow the beach all the way south to a river.

Up at the north end of the cape there was a path that looked a little overgrown, and no one else I saw there walked up that way. I decided to investigate!

This is what I found! This is the entire length of this beach, I'm standing against the rocks to take the photo. There was no one else here and no one came along. So I sat and pondered the waves and got sunburnt for a while.

The food here was awesome. Everything was good. The seafood of course was on display out the front having been caught early that day of some places. Matahari is the best, as the Lonely Planet guide says, it wasn't open on some days though. But there was a chinese place at the northern end of the road which was also excellent.

Looking down the main street of Cherating.

I also discovered my two new favorite drinks!

Penguin! 12% alcohol, roughly $3.50 a can. It looks like it's a Belgian beer copy or something. There weren't many identifying marks.

Flashy Fruitade! It tastes like bubblegum!

Travelling North


A couple of photos from the trip north. I left Cherating and tried to cover about 200km to a place called Merang, another beach resort village. And finally, the haze was clearing.

Pantai Kamasek

Pantai Kelulut, in a town called Marang (not Merang...)

Merang

I'm here in Merang for a couple of nights staying at the Kembara Resort. It's not very big, 10 smalls rooms, a dorm, and 8 larger rooms. I chose one of the larger ones with a fan only, I'm not sure all my stuff would have fit in the smaller room. They showed me one of the aircon rooms too but it smelt like people has smoked in there and never ever opened a window, like all air conditioned rooms here. It's only 50RM a night here. I had intended to go over to one of the islands, but it looks like it would cost $40-50AU for a return trip out there for one day. I wouldn't pay that in Australia, why here!

Close to sunset yesterday.

Beach.

Beach and clouds.

Sunset.

There's not a lot left to explore in Merang, but I'm here for another day. I can easily waste that!

Next stop, Kota Bharu.